Best Cover Band

Griffin & the Gargoyles

There has been a recent trend in the St. Louis bar-band scene, in which "tribute" acts (which re-create the experience of seeing Bruce Springsteen, for instance, or Van Halen) receive much more love and attention than their cousins, the cover bands. But consider for a moment the versatility that is required of a really great cover band. Any drummer worth his or her sticks can hack out Springsteen's 4/4 rhythms, but a cover band's timekeeper has to be able to jump from rock to funk to hip-hop on a moment's notice. And it's that genre-blurring capability that makes Griffin & the Gargoyles such a dependable cover band. For weddings the groups can dust off Sam Cooke and Stevie Wonder. Weekend crowds can expect everything from Flo Rida's "Low" to the Commodores' "Easy," all of it performed faithfully and exuberantly.